Police campaign leaves Lawrence family reeling

After six painful and exhausting years, the Lawrence family believed they were on the brink of breakthrough in the battle for justice over their son Stephen's murder. The public inquiry was about to deliver one of the most damning indictments of police conduct in the Met's history. They hoped it would restore public confidence and lead to reform that would ensure no other family suffered in the same way.

But then - in the same one-step-forward, two-steps-back pattern that has dogged their long fight - the family last week felt the full force of a police backlash.

Both the Police Federation and the Superintendents' Association went on the offensive, criticising the way the inquiry was conducted and denying the central charge of institutionalised racism. Selective leaks of inquiry correspondence suggested the family's lawyers - and by implication the Lawrences - may be criticised for launching the failed private prosecution against the five main murder suspects. The old claims that the Lawrences were at the centre of a politically driven campaign were resurrected in a week of sustained adverse publicity.

Yesterday, Neville Lawrence, Stephen's father, spoke of his anger at the onslaught and his fears that the backlash was an ominous sign that little had changed within the Metropolitan force.

'By seeking to discredit the inquiry, ahead of its findings, it seems to me that they are saying they do not accept it,' he said. 'It shows that despite moves at the very top to accept fault and move on, there may not be the support within the rank and file and among senior officers, and that is the real worry.'

Although he was very reluctant to speak to The Observer, Lawrence was driven to do so by the week's news coverage.

'Why? Why should we be having to defend ourselves and our actions, when all we have sought is justice to find our son's killers?' he said. 'What seems to have been forgotten in all of this is that there would have been no need for a private prosecution or a public inquiry if Stephen's murder inquiry had been handled properly in the first place.

'The police are saying "It wasn't us who killed Stephen". Of course it wasn't. But it is the police who allowed them to get away with it. What they are trying to do is defend the indefensible.'

Yesterday Imran Khan, the Lawrences' solicitor, said they were particularly outraged at police suggestions that Doreen Lawrence was protected from cross-examination during the inquiry.

'Why is she being put on trial? She is the victim. She has done nothing but pursue her son's killers,' he said. 'Yet she is being asked to defend that.'

Khan said that police and media commentators had been careful to avoid explicit criticism of the Lawrences, which would be bad PR. But by attacking their legal team and by undermining the inquiry, they were putting the Lawrences into the firing line.

'Every word is carefully chosen. They talk of the dignity of the Lawrences but the suggestions of politics, the criticism of us - the lawyers - is all veiled criticism. Neville and Doreen Lawrence are intelligent, articulate people, who have been asking the difficult questions all the way down the line when many would have given up,' he said.

'The decision to bring a private prosecution was a difficult one. And despite all the media coverage, the public inquiry and now three police investigations, we still do not have any more evidence. Had the police done their job properly we would not be in this position.

'It is the tireless efforts of the Lawrences that have after all this time exposed the incompetent police and the racism. 'But it has taken a heavy toll on them. Six years on, they are still not being treated as victims.'